Meru screening promises to be a thought-provoking journey

Mount Everest has become a colloquialism akin to “white whale,” supposedly meaning the greatest challenge. In a literal sense, we tend to consider Everest the mountain climber’s ultimate goal. But two of the climbers featured in the documentary Meru had climbed Everest multiple times before filming, and still found their ultimate challenge in the Shark’s Fin on Mount Meru, a mountain in the Himalayas. Jimmy Chin, Conrad Anker and Renan Ozturk’s 2011 ascent was the first successful attempt to summit the Shark’s Fin, and the second attempt by these three climbers, who tried it first in 2008. The film, using footage from both climbs and interviews with the climbers’ families and friends, chronicles both attempts. It also tells the personal stories of these climbers, all of whom bring their own baggage to the summit — a truncated recovery from near-fatal injuries affects Ozturk’s ability to make the journey, traumatic avalanches leave Chin shaken, and the devastating loss of mentors and fellow climbers pushes Anker to live up to lost legacies. With a sensitive lens, the film examines them as people and as climbers, and tackles the metaphor of the mountain and what it means to overcome. With awards and accolades from Sundance, Telluride Mountainfilm Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival and more, Meru promises to be a thought-provoking journey. Bonus: This screening, presented by the Independent Film Society of Colorado, is in the Ivywild School’s gym, so you can enjoy the film’s intensity and heartache with a full bar and fresh popcorn.